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despair quotes

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“But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.” George Eliot, Middlemarch
“We cannot despair of humanity, since we are ourselves human beings.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it
“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.” Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
“Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.” Charlie Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux
“the habit of despair is worse than despair itself.” Albert Camus, The Plague
“There is prodigious strength . . . in sorrow and despair.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
“Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that and manage it against despairing thoughts.” William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
“Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
“One hoped, and the other despaired: they chose their own lots, and were righteously doomed to endure them.” Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.” Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
“Call it not patience, Gaunt; it is despair:” William Shakespeare, Richard II
“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
“Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.” William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
“it’s no good worrying about tomorrow. It probably won’t come.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
“Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.” John Milton, Paradise Lost
“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Woody Allen, Side Effects
“But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down, which in every metropolis is most in evidence through the...” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“Discomfort guides my tongue and bids me speak of nothing but despair.” William Shakespeare, Richard II
“PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“the most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose.” James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
“No reflection was to be allowed now: not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future. The first was a page so heavenly sweet—so deadly sad—that to read one line of it...” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit dies in ecstasy.” Honoré de Balzac, Séraphîta
“When I was beginning to despair, and it seemed there would be no end—it's come! She loves me!” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“But that happiness, no doubt, was a lie invented for the despair of all desire.” Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
“Despair has its own calms.” Bram Stoker, Dracula
“Though provided with a large library, I'm frequently very dull at the Grange; take my books away, and I should be desperate!” Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“But what a man does out of despair, is not necessarily a key to his character. I have always thought that the real key is in that which he seeks for his enjoyment.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“She had put despair and fear aside, as if they were garments she did not choose to wear... but now she saw that she had donned them after all.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we'll have the rifle.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
“He who despairs is in the wrong.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Related topics

sorrow love hope loneliness endurance depression humanity happiness pain life virtue desire comfort sadness truth death fear wisdom solitude strength

Related authors

William Shakespeare (4)
J. R. R. Tolkien (3)
C. S. Lewis (2)
Emily Brontë (2)
Albert Einstein (1)
Charlie Chaplin (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
John Milton (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
John Steinbeck (1)
Henry Miller (1)
Albert Camus (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
George Eliot (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Bram Stoker (1)
Woody Allen (1)

Related sources

The world as I see it (1)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1)
Mere Christianity (2)
The Return of the King (2)
Wuthering Heights (2)
Richard II (2)
Middlemarch (1)
The Fellowship of the Ring (1)
A Tale of Two Cities (1)
Dracula (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
The Plague (1)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Beautiful and Damned (1)
Tropic of Cancer (1)
Paradise Lost (1)
Atlas Shrugged (1)
Madame Bovary (1)